Alleged Armed Militants Blockaded In Kabardino-Balkaria

Russian officials say alleged armed militants have been blockaded inside a house during a counterterrorism operation in the country's volatile southern Kabardino-Balkaria region.

Officials in the North Caucasus republic said on January 15 that the suspected militants were holed up in a private home in Kabardino-Balkaria's capital, Nalchik, and exchanging fire with law enforcement officers.

Residents in nearby houses were evacuated as the operation continued.

The mostly Muslim regions of Russia's North Caucasus are plagued by attacks and fighting between security forces and militants in an Islamist insurgency stemming from two post-Soviet separatist wars in Chechnya, east of Kabardino-Balkaria.